Over the coming year the MMC blog is featuring composers who write paperless music! While you may recognize a few names from our song collections and workshops, we're especially excited to share new compositional voices bringing breadth, depth, and richness to an evolving body of music sung without paper. Each composer has generously agreed to offer a free piece to the MMC community; others can be purchased from the composer directly or found in existing resources. We hope you'll enjoy the videos, audio clips, and sample scores, and find new songs to share with your community.

About Kerri Meyer:

Kerri serves St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco and is a candidate for ordination. In another chapter of her life, she was the Executive Director of Mila Vocal Ensemble, a professional women's group specializing in the folk music traditions of Eastern Europe and Georgia. The Christian vocation to justice-seeking neighbor-love motivates her work and her singing. Kerri is well-known to the MMC community through several songs, including Go On Your Way in Joy, My Friendsand There Is Enough.

Several of the songs below are from Resistance Through Preaching and Song, a project involving several MMC presenters including Kerri and Sylvia Miller-Mutia. Comprised of six pastors from various denominations, the group is harnessing the liberating, prophetic power of the gospel and the role of song in countering an empire which seeks to tell a single story about people. They believe that using scriptures to create new songs to sing in worship will help open ears to hear, tongues to proclaim, and hearts to receive the gospel anew.

Another World

Arundhati Roy's fierce advocacy for the earth and people who live close to the earth inspires me and challenges me. I met the lovely, more contemplative (and faithful to the text) setting of these words by Ana Hernández at an MMC event a few years back. After the first few protests in response to the current administration's policies, I wanted a street-march remix that invited easy harmonies.

The Rev. Dr. King's words are a much-needed centering prayer for me in these desperate-feeling days. I'd love to combine this march-ready song with responsive, spontaneous, spoken word art someday so that it can break, respond to the moment, and cycle back to the beginning.

Click here to find a recording on the Resistance Through Preaching and Song page. Scroll down to locate it. Kerri is happy to have you share the piece with your community. Hearts Cry Out

This song came out of what seemed like a relentless stream of ecological and human lament back in 2015, when the world kept sharing the words of poet Warsan Shire. I've imagined it being useful as a sung response to prayers of the people in Lent or following whatever our next tragic failure as a people might be.

This is a Latvian tune. I hear fellow religious leaders and activists speak of how hard it is to know when we've done enough for one day and can set the work down and rest. This song is a letting go of what's undone, which in my life is a lot.